Rubio was trying to foul out Harden by flopping more. The coach FINALLY called him for blocking. It was the same strategy that Isiah Thomas of the Kings and Dragic used on Lin to effectively get the referees to cheat for them. You notice, unless the flopping or dirty play is against superstars like Kobe or LeBron, the NBA doesn't issue any statement? (Tony and Duncan don't count because they play for a smaller media market). It's like a public notice to officials: Did you forget to give superstars the superstar treatment?

I live in Chicago and I am a Bulls fan (as well as a Jeremy Lin fan). The haters here are all over D-Rose about him not playing even though he is medically cleared to play. It's mostly driven by sports talk radio here. I personally think he might as well sit out the whole season, but it's a huge controversy in the Chicago sports scene.

Lin is 3 of 8 from beyond the arc. I like that Lin is kept shooting 3's despite missing a lot. That's what a lot of good shooters do, like Harden and Parsons and many others in the league. I also LOVE the fact that he shot 15 tonight (8 of 15 from the field). As they miss a lot, they get the feel for how much to adjust. Shooting is also a percentage thing, so they still have to shoot. I think this showed to me that Lin is FINALLY no longer intimidated by McHell, as he has now played in 65 games for the Rockets (haven't missed a game): Until Lin is traded, he, as a starter, is more important than the rogue coach. At first, as a newbie there and with a limited experience, Lin must have felt powerless to McHell's extreme condescension and bias toward him. It also helps greatly that Lin has played well for some time. I'm so glad his knee is finally 95% or whatever.

I don't think Lin was ever intimidated by Mchale nor do I think Mchale ever wanted Lin to play poorly. An argument can be made that Mchale had a lack of faith in Lin, but this intimidation suggestion is just silly to me. And the fact that we're still constantly talking about Mchale is just a buzz kill. It's so tiring. And I know I'm in the minority here, because you all love focusing on Mchale even after a game like this.

All that said, I am with you on loving the fact that Lin kept shooting the 3 pointer even after missing some. Had got down on his shot, he wouldn't have ended the game by nailing 3 of them for a good 37.5%.

Didn't like McHale as coach and gave up on any improvement regarding JLin relationship, but with recent developments (giving JLin some more respect in his interviews and let him run more of the offense than usual), I'm willing to put him back on the "wait and see" list.

I stand by what I said. I feel it's true, and it all started with McHell not believing Lin first, and then the rest of ugly thing followed.

And you Bamboo blackie (certainly not an Asian, like you'd like us to think): Shot the feck up with your ass kissing McHell and always disagreeing with anything anti McHell or anti Harden and a lot with pro Lin. This is Lin fan site. Just FECK OFF you OBNOXIOUS CREEP always policing this site. Create McHell and Damnpson's site and LOCK YOURSELF FECK THERE!*&%$#g%

ztrta, "blackie" ? Dude, do you have any self-respect? Don't be a racist. Number two: I'm white. Number three: I had this screen name long, long before Linsanity so try again with your theories.

Saying I'm "policing" because I voice my opinion that happens to disagree with you is weak. I never ass kiss Mchale; in fact, I almost never talk about him. It's you and others who are literally obsessed with him and can't go two breaths without bringing him up.

You can't equate me saying that I'm sick of hearing about Mchale with ass-kissing him: That's a huge fail in logic.

I'm not a huge fan of Mchale. But I don't have this vitriolic hatred toward him either. I'm not obsessed with him. And I'm not one to blame him for everything and anything when Lin has a subpar game. And when he has a good game, I give Jeremy full credit, like tonight.

I don't always disagree with everything anti Harden and anti Mchale. However, if the media was ANYTHING like you it would be the most racist media in the world. Unlike you, I can give respect, and acknowledge the skill level and accolades of other players. Being a Lin fan doesn't mean you have to be blind and dismiss the accomplishment of other players.

You're calling me obnoxious? Maybe you should read what you have just wrote and then try to come to reality.

I always have difficulties with any coaching that "protects" a player from expectations by defining them at minimum ceiling levels. I respect Phil Jackson's zen basketball mantra in part it is so inherently easy for me to appreciate having studied the Toa and zen philosophy. I agree with his way of coaching in allowing his players to grow in a positive and calm manner. Even MJ once quoted that learning to smile as advocated by Phil had a calming affect on his way of handling stressful moments. Phil trusted his players to solve the problems on court and only called time outs if it was absolutely necessary.

Mchale is the complete opposite and the way he manages Lin has made it difficult for me to believe that he has the ability to be a good head coach. He could be a developmental coach, but certainly not a head coach.

Mchale is not a NBA coach yet , he did not have any experience and knowledge of coaching in NBA, he never trust and respect Lin as a player . However ,last couple games he changed just because he need to respect of result of the game for not benching Lin for the 4th quarter , and that is nothing to do with how Lin is doing on the court . Mchale was a Lin hater., that is all.

Kevin McHale is not a good coach. His teams play terrible defense (this was also the case during his Minnesota tenure). On offense, his team looks good when they can run and gun, but if they play someone who can force them into more of a half-court game, they struggle big time. Their half court sets are rudimentary and rely heavily on iso ball with guys standing around in the corners. There is frustratingly little motion in McHale's half-court offense and they are way too reliant on Harden creating his own shot and 3-point shooting. There's some pick and roll but their centers and PFs aren't great around the rim.

However, the Rockets have talent and that's why they will make the playoffs in spite of sub-par coaching. I feel the same way about The Clippers: superior talent, subpar coaching (Vinny del Negro is the luckiest coach in the NBA). However, in the playoffs, it's difficult to play a run-and-gun style of offense. Things slow way down and the half-court O comes to the forefront. Also, teams gotta play D to succeed in the playoffs. The Rockets don't do either very well and that's on the coaches.

That said, I hope Houston jumps over GSW and draws Memphis in the first round. That's a much more favorable matchup for them than OKC or SAS, two teams who are better coached, play very good D, can really slow down Harden (let's face it, when Harden plays poorly, this team's offense really suffers), and can beat you in a half-court game whether it be in the post or from the perimeter.

I follow the Rockets all season long , without Mchale's bad coaching decision , Rockets should be at least 6 0r 8 winning games more than now we have , Rockets' good record just because they have excellent Scout, great assistant coaches , good talent and young legs and good personality of the players . Mchale is just a lucky person with right time and place .

Thanks alcsd, I haven't followed Mchale at all but he seems to have the respect of the players he has worked with. Lin may in fact prove to be one of those players in the long run.

As I said about Phil Jackson's Zen Basketball,conan with him on being calm and level headed. Feeling the flow of the game as it develops and having faith in your guys to execute the game plan. Phil used to have his bench players enact the roles of opposing players during practice to set plays against opposing teams tendencies. Mchale's dogmatic regimented substitution patterns doesn't take into consideration of the flow of the game. He fails to take into account of team fatigue in game preparation.

I guess the simple answer would be that a head coach has to drive the f-1 car and a developmental coach is more the pit crew. They are both essential, but driving the Rox requires more than Just the best lap time. to compete, you have to be aware of fuel consumption, drafting and other drivers. The coach has to assess risk reward percentages of every tactic and make his team believe in that strategy and fully commit to it. If others on this board can tell me that Mchale has these traits, I'd be more than happy to be wrong. The lost to the Suns was on Mchale. " if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail ", from 'Art of War'. By having no contigency for mental fatigue, Mchale could not change the results of the game. Giving up so many turn overs by playing at overdrive as always is the main factor for the loss. When your mind is operating only on forth, you better make that adjustment!

OK, his superstars MAYBE. But that trust is not extended to his "role players".

In the "Jordan Rules", there's ample talk of Phil Jackson deliberately using Horace Grant as a whipping boy to galvanize the team into shape. Grant got so enraged at Jackson that he cursed out Jackson on the bench.

And of course, we know the Kobe vs Phil battles that took place. Jackson even wrote a book about it.

My point is that NBA coaches, even the best ones, rarely coddle their players. The NBA is a man's game in which coaches are already working with hardened professional basketball players.

As for alcsd's repeated questions about McHale's inability to develop point guard skills, the hard truth is that Lin is getting BETTER under McHale's watch. I predicted that this would happen before the season even started and HERE WE ARE.

Having been at the Suns game, I completely disagree that the loss was on McHale.

The refs did that one in by cheating Lin.

Even so, McHale played Lin despite foul trouble. McHale CANNOT BE FAULTED for the Suns loss.

I don't care who I enrage here. McHale is not perfect and makes his mistakes like ALL head coaches do, but he's not some sort of Satanic avatar who was cast down from the heavens to spit on Jeremy Lin's holiness. He's a coach with a WINNING RECORD, nothing more and nothing less.

As far as both the Kings (in Sacramento)and the Suns game (the previous one in Phoenix), the referees definitely gave away the games to the home teams. Those 2 games were the first two NBA games ever where Lin got fouled out! Lin isn't a foul specialist either. Down the stretch, the fouls were not called on the opponent. Also, as a double whammy, the bogus fouls were called on the Rockets - on Lin, in particular.

You lead with a belief, the mind followsYou lead with the heart, the body follows

We may not be perfect as human beings, but our faith leads us to want to be better, our mind finds way to be better.

Our laws are not perfect, but tell us we want to be just. Affirmative action and title 9 took a long time to take hold in our consciousness, but it made us believe in what was right and forced us to correct our behaviors.

Phil Jackson was not perfect, but he lead his teams with a idea, a philosophy and a concept of selflessness. MJ had to learn it and so did Kobe. Sure they didn't put too much credence to any of it and it took time for them to learn that they needed the rest of the team in order to win. There is no denying that Phil got the egos to at least consider leaving their egos at home for a while to work as a team.

Meanwhile, Greivis Vazquez -- a player that 99.9% of NBA fans, coaches and personnel would take over Jeremy Lin -- just led his team to its 44th loss (22-44). They had some injuries early on, but nothing that excuses such a horrendous record.

The guy has THREE All-Star caliber players around him (Gordon, Anderson, Davis) and Robin Lopez with a 19.3 PER...and yet he always looks for his own shot unless he can get an assist on someone else's bucket. Non-existent defense...wandering around the paint to pad his rebounding stats is his main concern.

Irving's "super-stardom" also makes me laugh. What a great job he did in Cleveland! Look how many games they've won...oh nevermind. At least Lebron really was a true superstar who could will his weak team to victory.

But let me also PRAISE point guards like Mike Conley and vintage Derek Fisher. These guys are criminally UNDERRATED. Memphis might have the second best backcourt in the league. They don't care about stats. They play D and feed their bigs and score when needed. Hence the quality records year after year without any "stars"...

Definitely. I loved Wall calling out his teammates' constant screw-ups recently. I even posted here that I wish Jeremy would say what he did. It was something like: "What mistakes? My guys gotta catch the damn ball." LOL. Go Wall go.

IMO, Wall also faced a bit of racism coming out of college (despite being the #1 pick). People questioned his court-vision and passing ability despite lacking any real evidence to support it. Just like people knocking Jeremy D and athleticism. The guy just needs a damn jumper! Isn't he shooting like 10% from 3 over the past two seasons?

Yeah, John Wall is really good. Another PG who seems to get a lot of undeserved hate from fans and media is Brandon Jennings. They, along with Lin are easily better than the likes of Lillard, Rubio and Irving who for reasons are so beloved that they get free pass for everything.

Jennings is very cerebral as a player. If anything, he's TOO cerebral. A player like him with his magician like instincts should be allowed to pull rabbits out of a hat on the court.

Jennings reminds me a bit of Jason "White Chocolate" Williams who was both a cerebral player as well as a freewheeling showman. I hope that Brandon Jennings is granted the freedom to be himself on the next team that signs him, as it likely will not be incompetent Milwaukee.

The team that could use Jennings? UTAH. That guy would make Utah a force.

I totally disagree with you about Brandon Jennings who I think is overrated. He's one of the "new breed" or point guards who look to score more than run the offense: Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, John Wall. But those guys do so effectively. In his case though, he shouldn't be shooting as much as he does. His 18 pts per game overshadow the fact that he barely shoots 40% from the field (and media "experts" criticize Jeremy for his shooting as a PG). Jennings is a speedy high energy PG but I'd hardly call him cerebral. I would pick more than half the starting point guards in the league over him.

Jennings is far from a shoot 1st PG, in fact he can be very pass 1st when he wants to. It's the same preception people applied to Lin during Linsanity as well when he's just forced to shoot more because there was no better option. Jennings this season alone had multiple 14-15 assists games which showed his capability of being a pass 1st PG.

Ive just read that McHale spoke for Lin and got a t-foul for doing it! Man - I heard that strange things happen when comets pass by (PanStarrs) but - he spoke for Lin??? When I tuned in I thought Lin was done for the night but he played till the end!?

well it was an exciting game, coming back after an 18-point lead and dominating second half.however, I'm not a basketball expert, but I'm not sure if going for a second half comeback will always work during playoffs. top seeded teams like Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, even Heat make adjustments during time outs.with playoff intensity, every team will strike for a blowout to secure team seeding.if he thinks "adjustments are overrated"... good luck. I rather Jeremy coach and play than Mc.

I know you used to play the PG position. Could you tell me from your basketball experience, how is a an ex-PF able to develop Lin's PG skills? I would think that Chris Finch is developing him because I think Finch used to play guard?

you missed a good game, @chan c :DThese almost-Linsanity games have been far and few in between for us these seasons so it felt good for sure.

alcsd, as an ex-PF Kevin can help develop Lin's PG skill by having Lin doing the George Costanza's secret of success: "Do the opposite of his natural teaching" :P

Kevin got vast experience being juked around my HOF guards that his first instincts for the guards are always wrong so Lin just needs to learn to do the opposite :D

Honestly, I don't know the answer either. In terms of guard skills, it looks like Aaron Brooks gave more practical advice on attacking opposite PGs than McHale. McHale just wants him to run the system with safe passes, great defense and excellent 3PT-shooting.

And , this may come a little too late , but your picture postings in the Phoenix game was great. Knowing that you and your boys were sitting there watching JLin play was awesome. 'makes me long for that day when me and my boys get to see JLin play too. :)

hey chan c, that day will certainly come :DWhere are you BTW? Lin will make an Asian tour so you can definitely go to the game soon with your boys :P

KHuang, I agree with your POV that Lin is doing a great job being a PG in McHale system despite not having the ball in his hands the most time. He actually covered the weakness of the system quite well and make it work.

It will only make Lin be more efficient as a shooter and learn to play with another ball-dominant guard like Harden. It will pay off in the long run to have a long NBA career because Lin will learn to play with multiple gears unlike last season.

I am really messed-up. You must be laughing your ass off. LOL. I think it's time for me to go to sleep.

Psalm,

You always surprised me with your sense of humor. One of these days, I hope to develop your calmness (not sure if that is the right word-you don't seem to get upset about things). I am a big fan of yours as a person.

@psalm , Yeah! I certainly hope so. And , I also hope that he remains a Rocket til October , so he could make good on that promised Asian tour. My boys want me already to buy the tickets but aren't available yet as of this time.

haha, we'll count on you for the Asian tour reporting then, chan c :Dhow old are your boys?

alcsd, well I just learned to take it easy and always see the positives more so than the negatives in every situation. I remembered my MJ days watching tough losses making me so upset I couldn't sleep well for 2 days :D haha.. After a while I realized hey these millionaires can make mistakes too so I can learn by watching them :D No more loss of sleep for me.

If they win, it's all good, if they lose, I can learn from their mistakes too. It's all good :D Watching basketball is easy, parenting gives you white nose hair :D

I'm not trying to be a debbie downer but I really didn't think we saw anything new from Lin on the offensive end. What was amazing was that he played both ends of the court. That steal and layup to tie the game was a momentum changer.

We've seen Lin draw charges all the time but what was particularly brilliant about him stopping that 3 on 1 fast break was that he coaxed the ball-handler into taking the shot himself. If he played him tight, he would have passed the ball for an easy bucket, but instead Lin sagged off of him to coax him to take it in himself, and once he committed to do that, he drew the charge. It wasn't the charge in itself that was brilliant but the coaxing.

I agreed with we didn't see anything new about Lin. I think Lin is allowed to run the offense more or is more involved because Harden is injured. I am not sure if Harden is trusting Lin more or because he has to due to his injury.

I also think this new lineup has more chemistry. I think both PP and Morris gone from the lineup, this team seems to click more. Plus D-Mo can and will set screens for Lin (even without Lin asking him for one).

So amazing to see Jeremy running the point and not one of his teamates stumbling around bringing up the ball. What was McHale thinking. I hope he learns from this. The multi-point guard thing is ridiculous. All the best teams have a starting point guard for a reason!

Look at MIA, they have 3 starting players who can play at least 3 positions. I don think who handles the ball matters that much. It is the timing that was troubles me. When we were losing, ball were just not at the right ppl at the right time.

Wow, Lin is like a Kung fu master, they can smash their fists against a board all day and not notice any blood or pain. Their chi is so finely focused that nothing, not even pain can dislodge them from what they are trying to achieve.

I hope that his lip is healed up and the pain is not bothering his game. Next time, Lin will be careful not to get caught jumping in the air on defense, needs to be more careful not to foul just because someone does a pump fake.

Do you guys find that sometimes those highlights actually are the same? Once I discovered one of the highlights vid actually owned by other channel because there is a watermark.Is it something that common on youtube??

You are childish and mean. For JLin to be a great player he doesnt need any of his teammates to fail. He is a great player - no matter what. For JLin to be successful with the Rox however - he needs his teammates (Beverley included) to do well.

Beverley is just doing his job. He hasnt done anything to harm Lin. In fact - he seems to like and respect Lin and vice versa. So...

Every people enjoy the NBA differently, in their own ways. That's why I kind of hate hearing someone saying he is a "real NBA fan". This is a Lin's fan site, I guess how Lin is doing is the most important thing.

People are ambitious and competetive - you dont have to explain that to me. However - Ryu Ken makes it sound as if JLin was the one-eyed amongst the blind -> needs everyone else to fail in order to be number one...

Sure - you both can hate or dislike whoever you want to. But - at least give some good reason (behavior, character, skills). Judging the book by its cover ("his face show me he is a fresh rookie") is no argument at all (unless we talk about modelling and not sports).

Wait a minute... that kind of reminds me of something... right... people who hate JLin for the way he looks...

Ryu, you can dislike a player but wishing bad on them is not a good thing in my opinion. Bev is similar to Jeremy in that no team really wanted him and he had to prove himself overseas until he got an opportunity to play in Houston. He worked hard and a good kid. I wish him well. If anyone knows what Bev went thru, Jeremy knows it best and embraces him with love too.

Beverly seems to be a good kid. He doesn't take many shots and appears to be channeling all his energy to play defense. He's doing what is asked of him to help the team win. I like him; it's just that I like Jeremy more! :)

Unfortunately, our society view winning as the be it end all. We then pretend that athletes serve us by being entertainers and role models. But to me, athletes serve society by revealing to us that competition raises the bar of our human expectations. Athletes remind us that in order to break records, we first must believe it is possible. Each time a seemingly impossible record is broken, a flood of others will repeat it immediately afterwards. Lin is such an athlete, Lu Xiang and Na Li are also equally game changers.

We see too many times athletes playing against one another as if they hate one another. Christians have a lot of difficulties with sports because of this kill or be killed dynamics. The truth is that athletes need one another. To break records, every athlete has to bring their best to push one another, that is the true spirit of competition. In order to be a game changer, you need others to push you to bring out the best within yourself. In this sense, elite athletes are no just competitors, they are a part of a fraternity. To enter that fraternity, you must adhere to the code of honor to never give any quarters and always bring your best. Showing mercy is lying to your opponent to deceive them to believe that they are better than they are. When Tyson Chandler fouled Lin hard recently, he was showing no mercy as an opponent in order to challenge Lin to bring his best not as an enemy, but as a brother of a fraternity. It's this challenge that raises each other's play enabling the one who can rise above it all and makes society see the new limits of human achievements.

All the best private schools requires sports participation for this reason because sports teaches kids to compete and learn teamwork, things you can't ever teach.Silicon valley is such a place of intellectual competition, where the best minds battle one another to push the beyond the confines of what we believe is the limits of our potentials. Sports teaches us that the only limits are the limits of our imagination.

It seems lots of sports fan live through their sports hero. They are there to cheer when their sport idols win and bitch when they lose. But, asking them to be inspired by sports heroes by challenging themselves to do better?

Honestly, by the size of most sports fans' beer belly size and amount of time the spend in front of the big screen TV instead of doing something more productive, I doubt, for the most part, sports are encouraging people to better themselves. Instead, it's a form of entertainment that numbs them from real world problems.

i was listening to the timberwolves radio play-by-play last nite, and when JLin hit that 3 in the 4th quarter, I remembered hearing "there are two guys doing most of the scoring for the rockets, and you just cannot leave Jeremy Lin wide open like that! rockets up 89-86." the coaches may have set up that play. harden had the ball from the top of the key on an isolation play. there were 4 defenders protecting the lanes. smith set a screen for JLin, and harden quickly passed to JLin for the wide open 3. if steimsma went after JLin, then they would have had barrea on smith, and JLin would have exploited that mismatch. just like he did later in the quarter, throwing a short alley-oop to smith, who was defended by barrea on the switch.

i'm glad to see some consistency by the official score keepers in last night's game. one play i remembered, JLin stripped the ball away from rubio, and harden picked it up, passed down-court to JLin for the layup, tying the game at 82. JLin was rightfully credited with the steal, unlike previous games where they would give the steal to harden for picking up the loose ball.

Harden is lefty, so most of time, he pass to his right side where he usually have 2 options. I think in terms scouting report, most team will still left Lin wide open if they have to chose between him and Parsons or De3ino.

Wow that is a big compliment from someone who is thought to be the star of the team. I have a new found respect for him. Gonna love it when they become the most fearsome backcourt duo in the league. Respekkt!!

Wow. That shows big time respect and maturity from Harden. Earlier this season he was talking about "his team" and how he's the man.

He's probably realizing the obvious truth -- Jeremy having an increased role can only help him. Maybe he collects fewer points or assists sometimes, but he'll win a lot more games, be a lot more efficient, stay a lot more healthy, and have more energy on defense.

I have definitely noticed Harden SHARING the ball a lot more over the past few weeks. He even gives Jeremy the ball during crunch time. Even if McHale doesn't come around, Harden seems to be learning...

That's why I get super annoyed when the team doesn't do well when Lin is on the floor. He sets the tone and when they play bad, like the first half of the Wolves game, regardless if Harden has 5 TOs and Lin has 1 or whatever, I still blame it on Lin because he's the floor general. It's like when Lin see that Harden and Parsons starts turning the ball over he has to add another one just for kicks or something. I know he's not doing it on purpose but he needs to relax and control the game. I'm glad Harden is giving Lin props.

Thanks for the share. Now we just have to stay calm and see how this team gels down the stretch into playoffs. I'm optimistic on days Harden says good things, they play well, and McHale made good decisions on court.